| This article is about the series. You may be looking for the character, the show's intro or the French VHS. |
Theodore Tugboat is the name of a TV show created by Andrew Cochran. The series started of as Andrew Cochran was telling how the Halifax Harbour works to his son, who is aged 3. Cochran and his production company, Cochran Entertainment, went on to lead the development of the series with the CBC in Canada, starting in 1989. Production commenced in 1992 with the first broadcasts aired on CBC in 1993. In the U.S. it aired on PBS from 1996 until 2002. The series has spawned up to five seasons until the show came to an end in 2001. Altogether, Andrew's production crew had made a total of 130 episodes. However, 76 of them were actually aired in Canada, due to Cardona and Cochran only having enough money to have each season at a short amount of episodes.
About
Young Theodore Tugboat and his friends revolve around and take place near the shores and docks of The Big Harbour. The show mainly focuses on Theodore, a kind and helpful, yet cheeky, and fussy tugboat whom is a harbour tug that wears a red baseball cap. Theodore helps also with his other tugboats friends solve their own problems. Theodore and his friends work for The Great Ocean Tug and Salvage Company whom The Dispatcher is the manager in charge.
History
The history of Theodore Tugboat starts of back in the waterfront of Halifax in August 1989. Andrew Cochran, a former TV journalist who had run Canada AM and CTV National News before moving home to Halifax to create a successful CBC children’s series, titled Blizzard Island, was walking along the waterfront one day when he noticed a container ship and two tugs in the harbour. After seeing that, he started telling stories of tugboats to his son, who is aged 2. In the next two years, CBC gave the green-light and so design work commenced in December 1991 and thus made 20 episodes for the first season starting on August 24, 1992.
Seasons
Narrators
- Denny Doherty as the Harbour Master (Canada, US, UK and Australia - only portrays Harbour Master in North American version)
- Stefan Ekman (Swedish dub)
- Kjeld Nørgaard (Danish dub)
- Per Frisch (Norwegian dub)
- Jari Silventoinen (Finnish dub)
- Jan Nonhof (Dutch dub)
- Denis Mercier (French dub)
Other Languages
English is known by means the only language in which the series is broadcast:
- Swedish: Bosse Bogserbåt (aired in 1997)
- Finnish: Teodor Pikkuhinaaja (aired in 1997)
- French: Théodore Remorqueur
- Hebrew: טדי ספינת הגרר (aired in the early 2000s)
- Norwegian: Taubåten Theodor (three years after the show's original Canadian airing)
- Danish: Slæbebåden Theodor (aired in 1997)
- Dutch: Theodoor de Sleepboot (aired in 2000)
Broadcast
Canada
United States
In Popular Culture
- A political cartoon illustration drawn by Michael de Adder featured a parody of Theodore Too, where a man tells George W. Bush (the 43rd president of the U.S.) that Theodore must be a Canadian submarine. The pun was that Canadian submarines are old and have "friendly fire".
- Another shows a man walking down the Halifax water front with Theodore behind him with the caption "When walk along the Halifax water front you feel like your being watched".
- The CBC TV show, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, featured a sketch in late 2011 entitled Lady Pee , where in one scene while two actors are walking down a hallway, three large posters of Canadian Theodore Tugboat VHS covers are seen.
- In another episode of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, the "Mark Jackson" character, who is played by Gavin Crofford, interviewed the defence minister outside the display of Theodore Tugboat at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.
- In the book Halifax ABC, a drawing of Theodore Too is shown on the page for the letter "T".
- In the book Halifax in Your Pocket, has two images of Theodore Too are shown.
Gallery
